Whatever the chief administrators for the city of Joplin and the Joplin R-8 School District decide to do is the approach that is right, no matter what the consequences.
The Globe has every right to express that opinion on its editorial pages; that is what the First Amendment is all about.
But when you use your news pages to back up your editorial page views, you are doing a disservice to your readers and to the truth.
On the same say that the Globe saw fit to publish Anson Burlingame's simplistic "guest column" saying the school board race was all about my firing and the city council race is all about whether Mark Rohr should be removed as city administrator, the Globe's own Editorial Board made it clear that the newspaper's role as a watchdog for the people has been replaced by the idea that anything that is defined by our top administrators as "progress" has the Joplin Globe stamp of approval:
Closer to home, forward motion should be the goal in every community. But we especially look forward to Monday's opening of two elementary schools and a middle school that will serve children living in Joplin, Duquesne, and Duenweg. More than two and a half years after they were destroyed in the 201 tornado, those schools will open.
The new Irving and Soaring Heights elementary schools and East Middle School will be unlike any schools Joplin has seen before. They were designed to last for the next 100 years. Now that's forward movement.
While Joplin High School is set for completion in 2014, progress needs to be made in other projects that have been outlined for Joplin's 20th Street,, particularly the library/theater complex. We expect that once building begins, it will spur those who have been waiting to see what's going to happen.
Dwelling on the past is of little use unless it is relevant to the future. Even unpopular decisions are better than no decisions at all.
The Joplin Globe Editorial; Board has every right to appreciate the progress that has been made, but suggesting that we praise the progress and turn a blind eye toward the greed and opportunism that have accompanied it, is a disservice to its readership and a slap in the face to those people on its news staff who have dedicated themselves to finding the truth and reporting it.
If Edgar Simpson were dead, he would be rolling over in his grave.
4 comments:
If Napoleon said it's true, then it must be so, said the dumb beasts.
No decision is worse than an unpopular decision? What kind of stupid reasoning is that? No decision was so urgent that it needed to be made without full consensus of the public. It appears that the editor and publisher of the Globe have completely overlooked the fact that the original East Middle School could have been ready for the students in August of 2011 at minimal cost to taxpayers. Why have they not investigated this fraud? That the buildings are not what voters paid for reveals abuse of public funds. Where is their investigation? They see nothing; they hear nothing; they report nothing. And therefore, they are a waste of natural resources.
Carol Stark has sold out her own community. What a pity and a shame. If the whole purpose of a newspaper is to protect and promote the public interest by keeping government within its bounds, how can they justify their pulp newspaper? One might as well read a rag off the rack at the Walmart check-out lanes as to seek valuable information from the local news outlets. I will never pay the Globe a dime again as long as the current publisher and editor are in place.
That the schools are good for the next 100 years is a guess, unless Ms. Stark has a crystal ball. With technology changing exponentially, what is innovative today will quickly become yesterday's news. Also, no matter what the building looks like, it boils down to whether or not students can read, write, and compute. That's what schools do. So get off the Huff/Besendorfer bandwagon and start reporting the real news, Ms. Stark, or go back to making cutesy yearbooks. You no longer belong in journalism.
Has any study ever been done to see if the public even wants, or needs, another movie complex? It sounds good, but is it worth the money? When dealing with other people's money, great prudence should be taken to make sure that it is used wisely. The idea of protecting the public trust has disappeared since the tornado, having been replaced with the silly notion that if we can dream it, we should have it because we deserve if for having been hit by a natural disaster. People who want to rebuild a community after a disaster in a manner greatly differing from what they had should carry insurance to allow for such radical changes. Don't ask the rest of the country to pick up the tab for your dreams. Whether or not the town comes back after the development of a movie theater and a library seems like a pretty big gamble. Please, be good and responsible stewards of the public trust, Joplin Globe, instead of cheerleaders for those who are profiting hugely from the tornado disaster. Rebuild, yes, but rebuild wisely and fairly for everyone.
My parakeet has refused to have his cage lined with the Joplin Globe. He doesn't even consider that paper to be worth soiling.
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